Smoke flavourings in food
Updated FAQ on smoke flavourings and their health risks
Changes compared to the version of 5 April 2017: Following a reassessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the FAQs have been supplemented and fundamentally revised.
Smoke flavourings are used as an alternative to the flavouring effects of traditional smoking and are also used in foods that are not traditionally smoked. Unlike smoke, however, they do not serve to preserve foods but merely to give them a particular taste. As smoke flavourings are complex mixtures of many chemical substances, special provisions apply here which differ from those for chemically defined flavourings.
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has summarised the most important questions and answers on smoke flavourings.